The MSCI Asia Pacific excluding Japan Index slipped 0.1
percent to 474.94 at 4:04 p.m. in Hong Kong, following three
weeks of losses. Three shares retreated for every two that rose.
Markets in Japan and South Korea are closed today and tomorrow
for holidays. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index were
little changed.

China’s “economy is suffering from relatively weak growth
momentum,” Yao Wei, a Hong Kong-based China economist at
Societe Generale SA, told Bloomberg TV after the Chinese
manufacturing report. “It’s a structural problem. The economy
will remain weak and the deceleration is not over yet.”

The HSBC Holdings Plc/Markit Economics Ltd. gauge of China
manufacturing dropped to 48.1 from a preliminary reading of
48.3, signaling a contraction. Economists had forecast a final
reading of 48.4. An official gauge of April factory output
released last week came in at a lower-than-projected level of
50.4 from 50.3 in March.

Regional Gauges

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 1.3 percent, dropping to
the lowest close in more than a month. China Longyuan slid 4.6
percent to HK$8.02 and China Resources Power Holdings Co.
retreated 1.5 percent to HK$19.18.

China’s Premier Li Keqiang is trying to avoid a deeper
slowdown after property construction plunged in the first
quarter and economic growth cooled. The Chinese economy is
projected to expand 7.3 percent this year, the weakest pace
since 1990, as the government reins in credit.

U.S. Jobs

New home sales fell 47 percent over the May 1-3 holidays to
the lowest level in four years in 54 Chinese cities, Centaline
Group said in a report dated yesterday. China Overseas Land &
Investment Ltd. fell 1.7 percent to HK$18.58 in Hong Kong and
Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd. lost 1.1 percent to HK$96.95.

A report last week showed U.S. employers added 288,000
workers in April, marking the biggest upside surprise in the
payrolls data since February 2012. Economists surveyed by
Bloomberg predicted an increase of 218,000. The jobless rate
dropped to 6.3 percent, the lowest level since the collapse of
Lehman Brothers in 2008.

Unrest intensified in Ukraine’s east. Ukrainian soldiers
took back a television tower in the Donetsk area at the weekend,
after it was seized by pro-Russian forces, Interior Minister
Arsen Avakov said on his Facebook feed.

Seven people died amid fighting in Kramatorsk, northern
Donetsk, according to website Kramatorsk.info, while an assault
by Ukrainian troops on the eastern city of Slovyansk saw
militants shoot down two helicopters, killing two pilots, the
Defense Ministry said.

The MSCI Asia Pacific excluding Japan Index traded today at
12.3 times estimated earnings compared with 16 for the S&P 500
at the end of last week, according to data compiled by
Bloomberg.

Aquila Resources Ltd. soared 36 percent to A$3.34 in Sydney
after Baosteel Group Corp., the parent of China’s biggest
publicly-traded steelmaker, bid to take control of Aquila in a
A$1.4 billion ($1.3 billion) deal to gain iron-ore, coal and
port projects in Australia.